, 1887-10-26
A PANIC IN A THEATRE.
Tho Senseless NADINE that Sometime
Take Hold of People.

Tho SenselesS Madness that Sometimes
Takes Hold of People.
It seems impossible, when you look
around mt gallant men and amiablO wom-
en-, sitting placidly ut a play, hat in a
moment, on the u]tterance of one word,
they can be turned into dumb, driven
cattle, senseless, suicidal Idiots. But it is
80. Any night the auditorium of a
fashionable theatre may echo to some un-
fortunate note of alarm. In an instant
the gray haired banker, whose dignity
gave tone to his whole section, is walking
up the backs of women and over the heads
of children.
At the Park theatre one night the
theatre that happily was destroyed by fire
about three hours before the time when 1t
would have been packed by New York's
best people TO witness Mrs. Langtry's
debut, some dude, entering up the unsafe
and tortuous stairway, threw his cigarette
through the iron grating of the steps.
Some accumulated rubbish began to
smOlder, and a volume of smoke poured
into the auditorium. About half the audi.
ence sitting there knew that the stage had
an enormous square opening direct upon
Tw~enty-second street-a door not ten feet
from the level OF the street. Every soul
in the house could have gone over the low
footlights, crossed the stage and been in
Twenty-secOnd street In three minutes
time. They had ell entered the theatre
by the crooked, narrow passage; they all
knew It's miserable limits; they saw the
smoke coming in at hat narrow passage,
and yet when some scared scamp near the
door jumped to his feet and screeched
"Firel' they all with enc accord started
to the rear, regardless of life or limb.
Luckily that night q stalwart police
man, with the lungs of n Stentor, calmly
said: There amt no fire; it's been put
out" He grabbed the first lot OF mad
people and bodily put them down into
seats; but for a few minutes there was
the widest kind of %scrlmmage. A well
known and digniied citizen had sat in
high bred ease two seats ahead of me dur
ing the performance. AS the panic struck
him he rose, mounted over the back Of
his seat and started to walk on the Shout
ders of some fashionably attired ladies.
1t seemed an occasion for remonstrance,
and l had u slight but severe remark to
make, and made 1t with an opera glass;
the old gentleman took the kindly hint
and concluded to walk on his legs in the
aisle, but he had made a fair start to
tramp TO safety over his fellow creatures.
Another time, In the Cosmopolitan hall,
the place was crowded for a first night of
minstrelsy. There was a low gallery run
ming round the building, supported on q
cNAlNN VI DpoAGs DbA lB NV 81
one Of these posts slipped off the block
and crashed through into a billiard saloon
in the basement; the gallery in that par
ticular spot sagged, creaked and some
beam split with alarming noise. In a
moment all was excitement in the crowded
gallery. l was sitting a few feet in front
Of this spot, and being fearful the people
might jump down on my devoted head, l
pushed my escort, a very important and
sclf-sunlcient gentleman, and suggested
we get into two broad aisles beside him,
where, If people jumped, they would not
jump or us. l got no response, and |
might as well nave pushed at the side Of
the house, he was so immovable. With
''level fronting eyelids" he confronted
nothing and looked at it steadily. He
clasped n hard Derby hat against his
stomach and was as near pe%trifaction as is
consistent with life.
After the alarm subsidized and the per-
Torrance was resumed, 1t was discovered
hat my scared friend had crushed his hat
on his body rs fiat as a mustard plaster,
and pressed the nails OF one hand so
venomously into the other that the blood
had started through the cut skin Gin
Cinnati Enquirer.